The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz is a non-profit music education organization co-founded in 1986 by T. S. Monk, the son of the late American jazz musician Thelonious Monk, opera singer Maria Fisher and jazz musician Clark Terry. Before 2019, it was known as the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, but was then renamed after its longtime Board Chairman, Herbie Hancock.[1]

The institute has held the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition annually since 1987, offered its full scholarship Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance graduate-level college program since 1995, and organized jazz education programs in public schools throughout the United States and the world.

One of the institute's earliest goals was to create a unique college-level jazz program where the masters of jazz could pass on their expertise to the next generation of jazz musicians the way Thelonious Monk had done in his Manhattan apartment throughout the '50s and '60s. In September 1995, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance was launched and the first class of seven students began their intensive training with some of the world's greatest musicians.

Now known as the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance, the two-year, tuition-free program accepts one ensemble of musicians for each class. All of the students receive full scholarships, as well as stipends to cover their monthly living expenses. The students study both individually and as a small group, receiving personal mentoring, ensemble coaching, and lectures on the jazz tradition. They are also encouraged to experiment in expanding jazz in new directions through their compositions and performances. Alumni include Ambrose Akinmusire, Lionel Loueke, and Gretchen Parlato. The institute is currently located at the Herb Alpert School of Music at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In November 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially designated April 30 as International Jazz Day to celebrate jazz as a universal language and tool for diplomacy. International Jazz Day is chaired and led by Irina Bokova and jazz pianist/composer Herbie Hancock, who serves as a UNESCO Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue, and also as chairman of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. The institute is the lead nonprofit organization charged with planning, promoting and producing this annual celebration, which began in 2012.

International Jazz Day was founded to bring together communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to learn about jazz and its roots. This day seeks to raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding; and also to reinforce international cooperation and communication. Each year on April 30, International Jazz Day will celebrate jazz as symbolic for promoting peace, fostering dialogue among cultures, allowing freedom of expression, and reinforcing the role of youth for social change.

UNESCO and United Nations missions, U.S. embassies and government outposts around the world hosted events for the first annual International Jazz Day on April 30, 2012. Venues and organizations in more than 100 countries marked the day with concerts, educational events, film screenings, and performances featuring world-renowned artists.

Since 1989, the institute has gone into public schools to provide music instruction and instrument training sessions for public school students in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C., as well as thousands of students in urban, rural, and remote areas of the country.

This internet-based curriculum traces the roots of the blues, its impact on jazz, and its importance to American history and culture. Lesson plans for American history and social studies students explain the connections between the blues and jazz from the blues' inception to today. The program's public school touring component includes blues/jazz artists such as Herbie Hancock, Alvin "Youngblood" Hart, Chris Thomas King, Keb' Mo', and Joe Louis Walker.

The institute's students and major jazz artists have traveled around the world as jazz ambassadors, presenting education programs throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the Caribbean.
U.S. Department of State sponsored programs:

The institute has produced a series of television specials to highlight the importance of jazz. In 1986, the institute produced "Celebrating a Jazz Master: Thelonious Sphere Monk," a PBS tribute concert hosted by Bill Cosby. In 1993, the institute coordinated "A White House Jazz Festival," the first "In Performance at The White House" PBS special taped with President and Mrs. Clinton. In 1996, the institute produced "A Celebration of America's Music," the first network television special devoted to jazz in over 25 years, which aired on ABC. A second "A Celebration of America's Music" aired in 1998. In 2006, President and Mrs. Bush hosted a concert celebrating the institute's 20th anniversary that aired as an "In Performance at The White House" PBS special hosted by Barbara Walters. In addition, the institute's international jazz competitions have been featured as documentaries on Black Entertainment Television and its affiliates.

Billy Dee Williams has donated artwork that has been used as the cover of the institute's International Jazz Competition since 1990. The artwork corresponds with the instrument being featured in that year's competition. Jazz singer and painter Kathy Kosins (among others) have their works prominently featured in the institute's offices in Los Angeles.

Thomas R. Carter, president, co-founded the institute in 1986 with the family of jazz pianist Thelonious Sphere Monk. The following year, carter co-founded the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. In 1995, he helped create the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, now at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.[3] Carter served as the producer of several "Jazz at the White House" gala concerts that were taped and aired as PBS television specials. He also initiated and served as executive producer of "A Celebration of America's Music," a one-hour ABC television special that was broadcast in 1996 and became the first jazz television special to air on network television in more than 25 years. In 1997, Carter served as executive producer for a second ABC television special. In 2011, he oversaw a series of educational programs in the United States and abroad that marked the Thelonious Monk Institute's 25th anniversary. That same year, he helped establish International Jazz Day, a worldwide annual April 30 celebration of jazz designated by UNESCO, and presented in partnership with the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, and the institute.[4]